Looking at college rankings and college guidebooks can help with the process of choosing a school. We’ve put together short descriptions of some of the most common college guidebooks to help you get started. Also, we’ll show you how organizations compile college rankings.

Before you take a look at this list, we recommend that you read our article, Make a List of Your Top Colleges.

Ranking Publications

U.S. News & World Report releases a list of rankings every year in which they divide schools into categories such as national universities, liberal arts colleges and specialty schools, and then rank colleges within those categories. Colleges are also ranked within each region of the U.S. (North, South, Mid-West and West). See a full list of categories and their definitions.
U.S. News & World Report’s rankings are based on the following:

• How administrators from other universities view the school
• The standardized test scores of the students accepted to the school
• The amount of money spent by the university per student
• Faculty resources: average class size, faculty salary, faculty degree level, student-faculty ratio, and proportion of full-time faculty
• Graduation rate
• Alumni donations

The Princeton Review publishes their annual rankings in a book titled The Best 371 Colleges

• The rankings are made up of 62 separate top 20 lists determined entirely by surveys of students attending the schools
• The top 20 lists include everything from positive categories such as Best College Library, Most Accessible Professors, and Great Financial Aid to negative categories such as Dorms Like Dungeons, Least Happy Students, and Students Study the Least

The Most Popular Guidebooks

Fiske Guide to Colleges is the best selling college guide book. It reviews more than 330 schools but it does not rank them. The guide book:

• Uses independent research and information from administrators and students from each school
• Offers academic, social and quality of life ratings for each school
• Includes details about SAT and ACT scores, acceptance rates and retention rates
• Profiles each school’s strongest programs
• Includes quotes from students at each school
• Focuses mainly on schools on the East and West coasts
• Does not include information on two year schools

Fiske also publishes a series of guidebooks about different college-related topics, including choosing a school, writing essays, and preparing for the SAT.

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association made up of more than 5,700 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. Each year they publish The College Board College Handbook that profiles more than 3,800 colleges and universities. The guidebook:

• Covers more schools than any other guidebook
• Includes information on every accredited two and four year college in the United States
• Doesn’t include information submitted by students

The College Board also sells a number of other guidebooks on different aspects of the college admission process.

Peterson’s is an educational resource company that publishes a yearly college guidebook called Peterson’s Four Year Colleges. The book has information on over 2,500 schools in the United States and Canada. Some information about the guidebook:

• Includes profiles of every accredited four year school in the United States and Canada
• Doesn’t include information provided by students
• Each school profile is only a half page long
• There are longer descriptions of some schools, which are paid for and written by the schools themselves
• Many people recommend this book as a good starting point, but it is not good if you want in-depth information
• The Peterson’s website offers a free and easy-to-use college search tool that allows you to search using different criteria

The Kaplan Newsweek Finding the Right College for You is a magazine-style guidebook. It only reviews 25 colleges that, “might be right for you,” but it does have a lot of good information about the process of choosing a school, including:

• Advice and tips from families that have recently gone through the process of choosing a college
• Thoughts from university presidents and other high ranking college administrators
• Guidance on paying for college
• Help with college admissions tests
• A companion website with free information and resources including practice SAT and ACT tests and Facebook Apps

Student Written Guidebooks

College Prowler’s The Big Book of Colleges is published annually and reviews more than 280 schools. Similar to the Princeton Review, it ranks these schools under categories such as Best Dining Rooms and Dorms. Every profile is written entirely by students. Some other information about the guidebook:

• With four pages for each school, this book has the longest profiles of any guidebook
• Each profile contains a report card that grades student satisfaction
• College Prowler’s website offers a variety of free tools that help you search for schools, pick schools that match you, calculate your financial needs and find scholarships

The Insider’s Guide to Colleges is published annually and offers information about more than 320 colleges and universities from all over the United States. Some information about the book:

• This book is written entirely by students at the Yale Daily News at Yale University
• Features interviews and information gathered from students at each school
• The main goal of this book is to provide a picture of the day-to-day life of the students at each school
• Compared to other guidebooks, there is not a lot of specific information about admissions, tuition and financial aid